WatchKit App Development Essentials – First Edition (2015)

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Announced in September 2014, the Apple Watch family of devices is Apple’s first foray into the market of wearable technology. The introduction of this new device category was accompanied by the release of the WatchKit framework designed specifically to allow developers to build Apple Watch app extensions to iPhone-based iOS apps.

WatchKit App Development Essentials is intended for readers with some existing experience of iOS development using Xcode and the Swift programming language. Beginning with the basics, this book provides an introduction to WatchKit apps and the WatchKit app development architecture before covering topics such as tables, navigation, user input handling, working with images, maps and menus.

More advanced topics are also covered throughout the book, including communication and data sharing between a WatchKit app and the parent iOS app, working with custom fonts and the design and implementation of custom notifications.

As with all the books in the “Development Essentials” series, WatchKit App Development Essentials takes a modular approach to the subject of WatchKit app development for the Apple Watch, with each chapter covering a self-contained topic area consisting of detailed explanations, examples and step-by-step tutorials. This makes the book both an easy to follow learning aid and an excellent reference resource.